When doing research certain patterns sometimes show up as a result of the units we use. This
might suggest the units we use have meaning. In a sense they do. I wrote (Beardsley, Essays in
Cosmic Archaeology Volume 2, 2021):!
We only need to explain the significance of the duration of one second. The second does
have meaning especially in connection with life. By dividing the day into 24 hours, the
hour into 60 minutes, and the minute into 60 seconds, the second is 1/86400 of day. By
doing this we have a twelve-hour daytime at spring and fall equinox on the equator, 12
being the most divisible number for its size (smallest abundant number). That is to say that
twelve is evenly divisible by 1,2,3,4,6 which precede it and 1+2+3+4+6=16 is greater than
twelve. As such there is about one moon per 30 days and about 12 moons per year (per
each orbit) giving us a twelve-month calendar. This is all further convenient in that the
moon and earth are in very close to circular orbits and the circle is evenly divisible by 30,
45, 60, and 120 if we divide the circle into 360 degrees which are special angles very
useful to the workings of physics and geometry. Further, the 360 degrees of a circle are
about the 365 days of a year (period of one earth orbit) so as such the earth moves
through about a degree a day in its journey around the sun. Thus, through these
observations down through the ages since ancient times we have constructed the
duration of a second wisely enough to make a lot work together. Now we see 6 protons
and 6 neutrons, which is carbon the core element of biological life on the planet where all
of this came together is deeply connected with the second that defines it all.
I also wrote (Beardsley, Weird Mathematics, 2021)!
We have to ask first, what is a gram? A thousand grams (a kilogram) is the mass of a cube of
1/10 of a meter on each side. And what is a meter? It was originally one ten millionths of the
distance from the North Pole to the equator, and is still close to that. This is the metric system.
It is based on ten. But why? Because we have a base ten counting system; we start with one,
then proceed to 2, then to 3…until we we get to 10 and start over…one zero is ten, one one is
eleven, one two is thirteen, and so on. Many have asked why we have a base ten counting
system and no one knows why, but it is thought to be because we have ten fingers to count on.
Then, we ask, what is a mole? It is a number used in chemistry because atoms, molecules and
compounds occur in large numbers and a dozen just won’t do. Therefore it is a very large
number. But how did we define it? Well carbon is at the core of life and 12 is the most divisible
number for its size in that it is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6,…evenly. And 1+2+3+4+6=16 is greater
than 12 which makes it the smallest abundant number. For instance four is divisible evenly by
one and two, but one plus two equals 3 which is less than four. Thus, we said carbon has
twelve grams per mole. This allowed us to determine the mole as the number of atoms in 12
grams of carbon, grams defined in terms of water and the earth’s size, The number was
determined by Avagadro and is 6.02E23.
This is best explained by something done by the astronomer Christian Huygens. He noted if pi
squared is 9.87 and we use this as earth acceleration instead of 9.81, then for the period of a
pendulum: